Yasuke is the second protagonist in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with the other being Naoe. Where Naoe relies on stealth and agility, Yasuke relies on his sturdiness and strength. Although there are two protagonists, you will want to level both up as you can freely switch between the two at any time, with a few exceptions. You will be able to get the majority of skills in the game provided you do everything that the game has to offer, however, that won’t be until later on in the game. Read on to find out what skills you should get first for Yasuke, and why they’re the best.

Table of Contents¶

If you want to jump to a specific section, click on the links below.

Yasuke’s Mastery Categories¶

Yasuke comes a little later on in the game, so Naoe has a head start on him. This means you’ll need to wait a while before you get full access to his kit. Yasuke has access to the following masteries:

• Long Katana: This is his primary weapon, which is good at offense and defense. The Long Katana gives you rapid strikes and sheath attacks that can quickly break through enemy’s guards.
• Naginata: The Naginata gives Yasuke more reach that keeps enemies at a distance while also providing wide-sweeping attacks. This is great for places like Castles where you’ll have to deal with numerous enemies at once. However, if the enemy gets past your initial attacks, you’re susceptible to attacks, unlike the Long Katana.
• Kanabo: It’s a club yo.
• Teppo: The Teppo is a front-loaded rifle which offers you powerful ranged attacks at the cost of stealth due to the noise it makes upon firing. It does devastating damage, but it has a slow fire rate to compensate.
• Samurai: This mastery enhances various aspects of Yasuke’s general playstyle. You’ll find passives to replenish your health, increase your adrenaline, and numerous other stuff including skills.
• Bow: The Bow is the complete opposite of the Teppo and is the only real source of stealth that Yasuke has access to. With masteries, the Bow is capable of high damage, although not at the level of the Teppo, but it won’t make a sound. Another upside of the bow is the utility it has with the different arrow types.

With that in mind, you may be wondering where you should spend your points across these six categories, look no further as we point out the best Abilities and Skills below.

Best Abilities and Skills¶

It should be noted that you’re never locked into the points that you spend, at any time, you can reset your mastery points by going into the respective menu and selecting the option. With that in mind, here are the best skills and abilities for Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Long Katana - Payback¶

Yasuke doesn’t do stealth well due to his size, so you’ll be getting in a lot of fights with multiple enemies. Payback performs three powerful strikes, each dealing 35% ability damage while restoring 10% health. With the upgrades, this becomes even better because it will become unblockable and will further increase your damage by 1% for every 1% of your health missing. Meaning that this will deal devastating damage when used at low health.

Long Katana - Power Dash¶

This ability is already unlocked and at first, it’s a little underwhelming. However, after purchasing the upgrades, Armor Avoidance and Chained Power Dash, it becomes powerful. Not only does this skill give the enemy the Vulnerable status, but the first upgrade ignores armor, and the second upgrade allows you to chain a second dash. If you position the enemies so that they’re close to each other, you’ll be able to take out multiple enemies at a time. For a third skill, we recommend Riposte, as it’ll replenish 5% health and give you a 100% critical hit rate when used against a Flurry Attack.

Naginata - Whirlwind¶

Whirlwind is not a skill that you use, but a combo. This combo can be used indefinitely provided you’re not blocked, parried, or attacked. Each hit will increase in power by 5%, so if you can keep it up, it has the potential to do lethal damage. With the upgrades, Rising Storm and Persistent Storm, you’ll generate 10% Adrenaline on each hit and the final upgrade allows you to keep the attack going.

Naginata - Crescent Strike¶

Probably the best skill for the Naginata tree. Crescent Strike leaps into the air to perform a wide arcing strike that knocks enemies back, which is great against multiple enemies. The real beauty of this skill is that when you get the upgrades, Deep Cut and Disabling Strike, it’ll also deal 35% Bleed Buildup and knock the enemies hit by the attack to the floor. This is a great crowd-control skill and plays well with Yasuke’s playstyle.

Teppo - Teppo Tempo¶

This is a passive, but a must-have passive at that. It allows you to fire your gun immediately after a dodge, and due to the low fire rate of the Teppo, enemies will close the distance to you a lot. This skill allows you to use the Teppo more effectively and saves you time having to reposition to reload. The upgrades are good too, Target Vulnerability will make the enemies Vulnerable and Quick Aim reduces the reload animation. If you’re serious about using the Teppo, you will want this skill early.

Teppo - Armor Buster¶

The more you play Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the more you notice what a pain enemy armor is. Fortunately, the Teppo has a skill that removes 100% of it. This speeds up the process of taking out any enemy. The upgrades, Radial Effect and Deep Impact further improve this skill as the former will send out shrapnel around 4 meters of the enemy, dealing 25% damage. Finally, the latter upgrade will push the enemy back, giving you time to reload and fire another shot.

Samurai - Battle Cry¶

Battle Cry when used in conjunction with Samurai Stand makes Yasukue a complete destroyer. Battle Cry will stagger every enemy in a 10m radius for the next 10 seconds. Add in the upgrades, Outnumbered and Healing Shout, and you have one of the better skills in the game. Outnumbered will increase your damage by 4% for every enemy afflicted with the stagger, and Healing Shout will replenish 50% of your health over 10 seconds.

Samurai - Samurai Stand¶

Similar to Battle Cry, this skill lasts for 10 seconds. Using it will put you in a frenzy, granting your attacks the equivalence of Posture Attacks, making them tear through enemy armor. The upgrade, Samurai Frenzy, will further extend this time limit by 3 seconds for every enemy killed. Finally, the final upgrade, Eternal Samurai, locks your health at 10%, stopping you from dying from a lethal attack while you’re in Samurai Stand.

Bow - Larger Quiver¶

The Larger Quiver passive line is a must-have if you intend on using the bow a lot. It’ll give you an extra 10 regular arrows and 3 extra special arrows per refill. This can be upgraded to Larger Quiver 2 and 3, which will end up giving you 40 regular arrows and 12 special arrows in total.

Bow - Clear Mind¶

We recommend getting the special arrows first, but as they are passives, we thought we’d choose a skill for this one. Clear Mind will slow down time around you for 10 seconds, which gives you more time to take out multiple enemies before they can alert anyone. The upgrade, Effective Mindset, will increase your damage by 15% for each kill during that period. Finally, the Level-Headed upgrade will increase the duration by 4 seconds for every headshot.

Kanabo -¶

Kanabo -¶

That’s it for our perceived best skills for Yasuke. There are a lot of good choices, and depending on your playstyle, you may opt for a different route, but we believe the listed abilities above are the strongest in each category.